The Last String of Survival
by NekonoKatzen
Summary: If left on his own, Subaru will die. Of course, Kamui isn't about to let that happen, no matter how hard it may be on him. SubaruxKamui.
1. Chapter 1

Another Subaru/Kamui fic! Though, it does have a mention of Fuuma/Kamui. Please don't kill me for that! This is also going to be a multi-chapter fic, and I'm predicting that it's going to be three or four chapters long. Or, at least I hope it will be that short… for my own sanity's sake…

**Disclaimer: CLAMP pwns X.**

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**The Last String of Survival**

**Chapter 1**

**By: Nariko**

Subaru sat on the roof of a building, staring off into what remained of Tokyo. He wasn't actually looking at anything in particular; he was just lost in his thoughts at the moment, his eyes glazed over and fixed straight ahead.

The Promised Day had come and gone, and all that was left in its wake was the remnants of a once great city. It was a bit odd for him to think that he, of all people, was one of the few surviving humans left on this planet. The only others left were the Dragons of Earth who had not died in the battle, and, strangely enough, those who had remained at the CLAMP Campus. Somehow, the tsunami that had drowned most of Tokyo overlooked the campus, thus leaving it totally surrounded by water; an island in it's own right. Perhaps, Subaru thought, it was a myriad of magic throughout the school that had protected the campus, which was now home to all the survivors; all except for him.

Life was not going to be easy: the war may be over, but this was now a different world; a world where survival was dependant on hunting, gathering, and working together. Yes, there was plenty of food to be found in the skies and sea, but the problem was that getting at these things was rather difficult without help. Even digging for food in the places where the water had not hit, the deserts near Tokyo Tower, wasn't an easy task for one person. There, you could easily die from dehydration if you didn't have someone watching over you.

"Subaru…"

The Onmyouji started slightly at the familiar voice, "Can I help you?"

"Why won't you come stay with the rest of us?" Violet eyes looked at him with concern.

Subaru watched the gentle waves roll back and fourth over the wreckage. "I'm fine on my own."

Kamui gave the older man a flat look. "I somehow doubt that. You look like you haven't eaten in a while." He reached down and felt Subaru's wrist, finding that it was far bonier than he had remembered. "You need to eat, Subaru."

"I'm fine."

Subaru's apathy was starting to grate on Kamui, "No you're not! What do you want to do? Die on this building!"

"And if I did?"

Kamui sighed and sat down next to the man. "I'd be sad."

Subaru's usually cold, blank mask broke into wide-eyed surprise for a few moments before recovering. "Why be sad over me? I'm not worth the trouble."

"I think you are."

"You'll get over it."

"No! I've lost Kotori, I've lost Fuuma, and I refuse to lose you too!" Kamui stared down at his hands with a certain amount of melancholy, "I will… I will protect you."

Subaru finally looked at Kamui. "Protect me?" Kamui nodded. "Why? Why would you do that? Even after I abandoned you and changed sides?"

"That doesn't matter to me, Subaru." Kamui rose to his knees and fumbled through his pant's pockets for a few moments before pulling out a candy bar and offering it Subaru. "Here. You need to eat _something."_

Subaru blinked curiously at the bar for a moment before waving it off, "No thanks."

"Eat it or I'll shove it down your throat."

For some reason, Subaru found Kamui's threat to be wholly amusing, and he began to laugh; however, that laughter was short lived as Kamui proved he wasn't joking and shoved one edge of the bar into Subaru's mouth. The Onmyouji froze in shock for a moment before biting off the corner and chewing, nodding in approval.

Kamui smiled, happy that Subaru was actually eating, and settled back down next to him, his eyes running over the world in view. "It's… beautiful, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"The sun setting in this new world." A gentle breeze mussed Kamui's hair.

Subaru turned his gaze back to the scenery around them, really looking at it for the first time. The water sparkled as it flowed around the man-made wreckage, reflecting the reds and yellows of the sky. The glass of the broken buildings, too, glittered with the water's movement. The sky was also constantly alive with the movement and songs of birds, all squabbling over spots of dry land on which they wished to make their homes.

"Mmhm." Subaru simply nodded.

"This was the world that I really wanted to see. The one I thought was more beautiful." Kamui hugged his knees to his chest. "You know, for the longest time, I thought my wish was to protect Fuuma. To make things go back to the way they were when we were small. But…" Tears began to well up in Kamui's eyes and Subaru started to feel a strange twinge of pain, urging him to do something to comfort the boy. "But… that wasn't it. My true wish was for change. I wanted us to become more than what we had been. So, I thought if I became a Dragon of Earth to be with him…" Kamui found himself shaking as he desperately tried to not erupt into a bout of full-on sobbing.

"I know, Kamui." Subaru's hand twitched in apprehension as it hovered over Kamui's head for a moment, finally coming down to stroke his hair.

"Why… why am I always wrong!" Kamui screamed, tears stinging his eyes. "Why did he HAVE to become my opposite again! I returned him to normal, but then _I _changed and _I_… killed him…" He buried his face in his knees, putting his hands behind his head, almost protectively.

Subaru impulsively pulled Kamui into a hug and let Kamui cry into his shoulder. "Kamui, I think…" He felt Kamui nuzzle into his coat. "I think this is what Fuuma wanted. He wanted you to realize your own feelings for him so that you could live. If you hadn't made the decision you did, he would have killed _you_."

Kamui pulled away from the older man. "Maybe that would have been better." He stood up and looked down over the edge of the roof, wiping the tears from his eyes. "The future was going to end up like this, no matter which of us survived. It was fated for the Dragons of Earth to win."

"Fuuma wanted you to live on, Kamui."

"Just like the previous Sakurazukamori wanted _you_ to live on?" He countered, not really meaning for his comment to sound as sniping as it did. Subaru just looked down and didn't answer. "Subaru. Come back with me. You can't survive on your own."

"I'll consider it."

Kamui looked at the other for a moment and nodded, accepting Subaru's answer. "Just remember there are those who still care about you."

Subaru looked up in time to watch Kamui deftly jumping from building to crumbling building, making his way back to the CLAMP campus. "Those… who care about me…?"

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Nya… more angst. I'm hoping that it'll get fluffier toward the end. It might even have a lemon, PWP chapter, but that will NOT be posted here. I've already been reported once for a yuri fic (even though that same section had lots of yaoi lemons that were allowed to stay :huffs: ), and I wish to not be reported again. 


	2. Chapter 2

More Kamui angsting… big surprise there! XD This chapter also has a bit of Suoh/Nokoru fluff, because I just couldn't resist. Oh, and a hint of Kusanagi/Yuzuriha too.

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**The Last String of Survival **

**Chapter 2**

**By: Nariko **

Kamui dragged his feet back to the Imonoyama mansion: he hadn't wanted to be returning alone. "Subaru…" He paused for a moment to look out at the ocean, which now lapped at the edges of all of CLAMP Campus. Most of the remaining residents took advantage of this to have a bit of fun occasionally, but Kamui never did. He spent most of his days locked in his room, curled up on his bed.

The end of the world hadn't quite been what he had expected, really. Not at all. He thought for sure that the earth would just crack like in his dreams; that everyone and everything would be destroyed. But no, most animals and some people did survive somehow; the latter not so much in Tokyo, the epicenter of the crisis, but in other places. At one point, a small plane had crashed close to Clamp Campus; a plane piloted by a young, English-speaking boy, about Kamui's age. Kamui could remember, quite vividly, how the young man had screamed hysterically about the world being broken as they wheeled him off to the school's medical center; about how everything he had seen on his flight, everything that had once been populated by humans, was nothing but desert and water. That boy was now buried somewhere on the campus.

"I'm assuming Sumeragi-san refused to come back again?"

Kamui snapped out of his musing, not realizing he was already inside the mansion, and looked up just long enough to catch Nokoru's worried look. "Mm." He simply nodded before turning and starting to head back to his room.

"Shirou-kun." Kamui stopped and looked back at the older man, "Keep trying. Don't give up hope."

Kamui faked a small smile, "Sure. Hope is all we have, right?" With that, he left the room.

"Poor boy…" Nokoru sighed and leaned on the closest solid object he could find.

"OW."

Nokoru blinked out of his thoughtful daze at the sudden sound. "AH! I'm sorry…" The blond quickly sat back up as he remembered what he had been doing when Kamui had come in: bandaging the wound Suoh had recently acquired by saving him from falling off a building. "I didn't mean to lean on your leg like that, Suoh."

"It's fine." The blue haired man sighed. "I just…"

"Don't like that you're stuck lying down until you are healed?" Nokoru smiled as he finished the bandaging.

The larger man nodded, "plus, I can't keep an eye on you in this condition."

"You don't have to worry." The blond laughed nervously, "Surely you know over the years I have lost _most_ of my sense of mischief and work avoidance."

"Yes, but in that time you also never _gained_ a sense of balance. Or any other athletic abilities, for that matter," Suoh countered.

Nokoru sighed and stroked his patient's hair lightly, "I'll stay in, okay? I'm sure the others won't mind as long as I'm tending to you."

"Fine." He shifted a bit and closed his eyes. "But if you leave my sight for more than fifteen minutes, I_ will_ come looking for you."

The older man smiled before turning his gaze to the outside of one of the room's larger windows. "Suoh?"

He cracked open an eye. "Hm?"

"Why did you come back? During the end of the world, you left your family and came back here. Why?" He looked back at his friend.

Suoh's eye closed again. "Do you remember when we were kids? How I told you I'd stay by your side to protect you?"

"Of course."

"Well…"

Nokoru waited for him to finish his sentence, but he never did. "That's the only reason why?"

"No."

"What else is there, then?" He tilted his head in an almost child-like manner.

Suoh fixed his eyes on Nokoru's and smiled slightly, "I'll tell you later."

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Kamui flopped on his bed with a groan. "Damn it, Subaru, why won't you come back?" He knew that any moment now Yuzuriha would be back from getting food to bug him about Subaru, and he knew that once again he'd simply push her out of his room, lock the door, and bury into his pillow. It was an exact routine they went through every time he went out to see the older man.

"Kamui-san?" And there she was, right on cue.

"What? I really don't feel well right now, Yuzuriha." He made a point of letting out an exasperated sigh, which apparently didn't work, seeing as she went ahead and sat next to him on the bed.

"You went to see Sumeragi-san, right? Did you find him?"

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"What did he say?"

"He's still not coming back."

Yuzuriha gave him a worried look. It was amazing, really, how much she had calmed down since the Promised Day. Perhaps the change had come from her realizing how lucky she was to be alive when so many were dead. If Aoki hadn't told Karen to take her back to CLAMP Campus when she'd been severely injured, she, as well as Karen, would most certainly be dead. "But you're going to keep trying, right?"

"Of course. What _else _do I have to live for?"

"You still have us!" She pouted.

"It… it's not the same…" Kamui sighed and put his pillow over his head, hoping that the younger girl would get the hint. He wasn't in the mood to talk about this.

"But…"

"Missy?" Kamui recognized the low voice as Kusanagi's and felt Yuzuriha hop off the bed, probably to hug him. He was lucky too: had he not followed Karen on that fateful day, he'd be gone as well, and Yuzuriha probably would have snapped.

"Have you been bugging dear Kamui-chan?" A playful female voice: Karen's. Even though Seiichirou had died, she still managed to remain as strong as ever. Kamui couldn't help but be impressed by it.

"I wasn't bugging him! He saw Sumeragi-san, and…" The younger girl trailed off, probably because Karen had motioned for her to do so. The former soapland worker had practically taken on the role of mother to the youngest living seals.

"Why don't you two go take a walk in the garden? I'll talk to him." Kamui heard the door shut and felt a gentle hand rest on his back. "Kamui?"

"He's not coming back."

"And?"

Kamui emerged from under the pillow, his hair now more mussed than usual. "And what?"

She couldn't help but smile at how adorable he looked when he was being indignant. "You're not giving up, are you?"

A loud sigh, "Is that the question of the day or something?" He sat up and rubbed his temples, "Of course I'm not. I didn't give up on Fuuma, and I'm not going to give up on Subaru."

"I'm glad!" She cupped his cheeks and brought his face up to meet her eyes. "You should never give up on someone you love."

"Wha…" His eyes widened and he blushed ever-so-slightly. "How did you…?"

Karen laughed, "Oh please, Kamui. It's only obvious!" She patted him on the back. "So, you're going to go talk to him again. Good. What do you plan to say?"

"I… I don't know." His expression turned crestfallen. "I don't think I_ could_ say anything to make him come back."

Karen thought for a moment, quickly coming up with a little plan. "Maybe you should tell him that you'll stay with him, even if he doesn't come back?"

"But living out there is a death sentence…"

Karen winked deviously, "Exactly."

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Please R&R? I promise to try to post the next chapter faster! XD 


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